I recommend organic Happy Frog 7-4-5 Tomato & Vegetable fertilizer...it has mycorrhizae and humic acid...

You can get it from the website listed below...

Here is a link that might be useful: Alternative Garden Supply

The following advice is relative to tomatoes, and not all other vegetables, because some other vegetables might require different fertilizer analyses ... like for leafy greens ... which will be far different from the fertilizer analysis beneficial for tomatoes. However, what's good for tomatoes might also be good for peppers, eggplants, cukes, and squash ... or so it seems in my garden.

First, prepare the soil in your tomato bed by tilling or spading by hand to break up the soil and develop a tilth that will encourage good root growth and health.

Before applying fertilizer, get a soil test to indicate the proper level of fertilizer to apply to establish healthy plants. Contact you county extension service to find a soils testing service.

In the absence of soil test recommendations, apply 2-3 pounds per 100 square feet of garden area of a good quality time release tomato food, with an analysis of maybe 10-15-15 or 9-12-12. Work the fertilizer in as
you till or spade. Do not apply high nitrogen fertilizers
such as those recommended for lawns. Excessive nitrogen will only promote leaf growth and not healthy roots, abundant flowers, and desired fruit. You're after a fertilizer that is higher in the second and third numbers than in the first number, ie: N-P-K When applying the 2 - 3 pounds of time release granular per 100 square feet, you should broadcast half the total amount and till or turn it in so that it is distributed within the zone 3 to 9 inches deep. Then broadcast the other half amount across the surface and rake it in to a depth of 1 - 3 iches as you smooth out your bed.

However, if you've already turned and tilled your bed and don't want to re-till with the recommended fertilizer amount per square feet granular at this point, you can water-in your transplants with a Miracle-Gro solution of tomato formula (18-24-16), rose formula (similar to tomato formula) or Bloom Booster formula (the one that's 15-30-15); then rake in a side dressing of a cheap granular fertilizer alongside the newly transplanted tomatoes.

In that case, I'd just get a 4-pound box of "vegetable and flower" or "tomato" food from Dollar General or Wal*Mart (they're gonna be about 2 bucks per 4-pound box of 9-12-12 or 10-15-15) and cast a strip alongside and about 6 inches distant from each plant amounting to about a small handful per plant. You should get about 40 plants-worth that way from a 4-pound box. Lightly rake in the side dressing and pray for rain.

Get a couple of extra boxes of that cheap granular to side dress your tomatoes again at first fruit set and maybe one more time later in the summer on the indeterminates you intend to carry into the fall. On subsequent side dressings, do not rake in the granules as you may over-till the shallow feeder roots and possibly cause BER in the green fruit.

If you're growing "organically," substitute certified-organic products for those I have suggested above ... in which case, you may want to buy a couple boxes of bone meal to raise the phosphorus content of the applications above that available in some "fish" or "seaweed" products. Just remember when calculating N-P-K ... those are all given in percentages of package weight, so if you wanted to raise something like the Happy Frog 7-4-5 to a "tomato-friendly" analysis, you could add one pound of organic bonemeal with an analysis of say 4-12-0 to one pound of 7-4-5 Happy Frog and have two pounds of 11-16-5. Dig?

Bill

Thanks for all the good advice - I am going to print this and take it to WM with me.
Thanks again